Eugenic euphoria

The news report that British experts in human embryology have the technology to allow parents to choose non-defective human embryos is more than disturbing. If for example, the embryonic child has a predisposition to cancer, that baby's parents can say, "No thanks," and the baby will be killed.

These tests, known as prenatal genetic diagnosis, prove two things about the rest of us. The first is that we can identify a human being as a baby immediately after fertilization, which means no more denying that they are human beings. The second is that we can, for this very reason, choose to kill the imperfect members of our family.

How is it that we have lost our will to defend the most needy in our midst? Far too many of us would prefer to dispose of those persons who for one reason or another are too inconvenient, rather than affirm and love them because their dignity as human persons is so precious to us.